Upon witnessing his conrade die so suddenly the head guard grit his teeth in anger and roared. "DIE!"

His fighting style switched from defensive to offensive and applied more pressure to his attacker.

Another clash of swords the opponents strength was beginning to weaken, another strike knocked his sword from his hands and then a final blow took off his head.

As the head guard cleaved the assassins head off he quickly calmed himself down.

He was the eldest guard in his mid 60's, experienced in fighting spirit beasts, humans and had encountered many dangerous situations.

Usually when he would erupt with all of his strength with determination to kill them there would be a peroid after the kill where most people would let their guard down.

An experienced veteran as he was he would not show such a weakness.

An arrow flew again towards him from the leader of the assassins, upon reaching the head guard he lifted his sword and blocked the arrow accurately.

When dealing with assassins the best way to determine where they would attack would be most fatal spots on the body.

Having dealt with situations like this before allowed him to accurately determine where the arrow would be aimed.

A look of surprise showed on the head assassins face before aiming again at one of the other guards.

This time he aimed low, letting the arrow go through the gap between one of the other assassins legs.

The arrow passed through and pierced through one of the guards knee.

The head guard glared at the head assassin in response after witnessing another one of his men hurt.

The assassin took action because of the opportunity granted to him and stabbed the falling guard in the heart.

In response to another death the head guard wanted to kill that very assassin, with a swing of his sword he cut off the assassins arm which held onto the blade still pierced into the other guards heart.

Another arrow came towards the head guard again, this time hitting him on his shoulder.

This time was not a fatal wound, a skilled assassin must learn to adapt to any situation and learn their opponents habits.

The guard had his defenses up against him even while fighting but their were slight openings which he could still exploit.

They were all humans with emotions, seeing those they had trained and fought together with for many years die so suddenly would provoke their anger and lead to making slight mistakes.

Although the head guard was not as emotionally unstable as the others he still chose to attack the assassin in response to at least lessen their numbers and threat.

The habit developed against the head assassin was to be ready to stop any blow which was aimed towards his throat, head and chest.

The assassin had already switched his habits to allow him to gain an advantage in the fight rather than immediately kill the head guard.

If the head guard closed the distance between them then he could easily use the opening to fire at the prince or princess.

So the head guard was stuck in place to not only defend the prince and princess but also to support his men while under fire from arrows.

Although the guards had been trained in swordsmanship they lacked any training in archery unlike the assassins.

Noticing his mistake the head guard stabbed neck of the armless assassin to end his life quicly before the head assassin could fire another arrow.

Another arrow flew towards another of his allies hitting them in the waist, this time instead of being killed the guard saw the blade going towards his heart without fear.

He knew he would die because he could not stop this attack after being wounded twice so he gave up resisting and instead charged forward into the embrace of death.

In his final moments his sword pierced through the assassins ribcage and came out of their back just as the blade of the assassin pieced his heart.

Sometimes in the face of death some show their true faces, those truly loyal would embrace their deaths to allow the others to have hope in the future.

Those disloyal or cowardly would chose to avoid the situation or cower in the face of it.

The guards were trained to be loyal from birth and to die for to keep their masters but of course they had to believe themselves that they served the right master to be able to risk their own lives for them.

The assassins embraced death because they had no choice, they were trained to be ruthless killers in harsh conditions to cut off their human emotions and become beasts that only know how to kill for their owner.

The difference between the both of them would be their own free will, the guards had their own and acted on it while the assassins acted on their objective which had to be completed or they would be killed anyway.

Another arrow pierced the shoulder of an assassin which confused the head guard, he had not expected the head assassin to be so ruthless to his own men.

The guards were loyal to eachother while the assassins were trained to be lone wolves, they could only look out for themselves.

To achieve the objective even their own allies were dispensible so long as they could live.

The guard fighting the assassin was also taken aback by the sudden situation and paused a moment.

However during this opening another arrow was already fired into the guards chest piercing his lungs.

The injured assassin ignored his pain and stabbed the guard right after the arrow pierced him accurately stabbing his throat.

[One guard, two assassins, one cowardly prince and a weak princess left alive.]